Destiny House of Wolves: The Shadow Thief Strike How to Unlock & Defeat Taniks

Unlock House of Wolves’ New Strike

So you’ve fired up Destiny House of Wolves for the first time and your itching to jump right in and take on its new strike, The Shadow Thief. While there are ways that you can play it right away, if you want to unlock it for yourself you’re going to need to do a couple of things first. Don’t fret though because unlocking The Shadow Thief isn’t nearly as complicated, or time consuming, as the previous new strike that was released in Destiny The Dark Below, Will of Crota.

The very first thing anyone should do when they start Destiny House of Wolves is to first head to the Reef and speak to Petra Venj. You’ll need to complete the first three story missions along with a short patrol farming session in between mission one and two.  Upon completion of The Silent Fang, the story quests will split into two, with The Shadow Thief being one of them and is now available in to be selected on the Moon. Congratulations! That was easy right?

Before we dip into our Shadow Thief strategy guide, there’s just a couple of miscellaneous things for you to be aware of. First, although you need to preform the following above steps to formally unlock the new strike, you can play The Shadow Thief through playlists or as a member of someone else’s party through the Nightfall (which as of week one is currently The Shadow Thief). Also, you can complete the story quest by completing The Shadow Thief on Nightfall if you want the additional challenge or want to kill two birds with one stone.

Finally, as always, if you’re doing this on the weekly or Nightfall, be sure to check the modifiers and equip the appropriate weapons to take advantage of the burns. Arc and fire weapons in particular will be helpful no matter what as many Fallen enemies have Arc shields, while the Shanks and Hive Wizards you’ll run into will have fire shields. Ok enough of all that, let’s finally dig into The Shadow Thief.

Phase 1: Fight to the Wolves’ Ketch

Before you actually break into the renegade House of Wolves mercenary’s Ketch, you’ll have to go up against some Hive and Fallen foes first on the Moon’s surface. Right away you’re going to see some Shriekers. If you’re on Nightfall tread carefully and try to take them down behind some cover as their Death Blast can easily take you out.

After heading inside the temple and dispatching some easy Hive enemies, you’ll eventually head down a couple of flights of stairs and will be in a large room filled with even more Hive. To your right will be a number of Orges that will rush you. Back up into the hallway that preceded the big room and peak around the corners to take out your enemies safely one by one, focusing on the Orges first before they get too close to you. You don’t need to kill every enemy in this area to move on, just clear the Orges and anyone else in your way and proceed up the stairs to your left. If you’re on Nightfall, it may be worth taking an extra or minute or two to make sure the path is clear.

The next room will be filled with some Hive and Fallen, nothing you can’t handle though. Clear them out and Taniks will appear for the first time. Like Omnigul in Will of Crota, Taniks will appear a number of times throughout the mission to harass you. An important distinction though is that the damage you do to Taniks here WILL carry over into the final encounter with him. After taking some damage, Taniks will flee and you can then board the ship and proceed to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Traversing the Ketch & Defeating The Wolf Walker

It isn’t long after boarding the ship that you’ll run into Taniks again. In the first big room Taniks will appear alongside the other enemies. Once again deal some damage to him while fending off the additional enemies (adds), utilizing cover if you’re on Nightfall.

After forcing Taniks to retreat, there will be a few waves of enemies to take out before proceeding. Just be careful of the sword wielding vandals especially if you’re on Nightfall. Keep them in front of you at all times. There will also be some Wolf Captains, a new enemy that is a souped up version of normal Fallen Captains. Your new sidearm, the Vestian Dynasty is useful aganist these enemies as you can quickly strip their shields and suppress their abilities if you’ve leveled it up enough.

After clearing this room, you’ll eventually run into another large room housing Taniks’ Wolf Walker. Like most other walkers, it is extremely deadly and you’ll need to avoid up close encounters at all costs regardless of the difficulty. Luckily, this room provides you with an adequate amount of cover and points that you can easily choke off with a Defender bubble. Fighting the Wolf Walker in House of Wolves is no different than any other walker, take out all of its legs and shoot its core when it’s exposed.

Stick to the left and you should be able to safely attack the Wolf Walker behind cover.

You’ll want to have one or two of your team members in the ‘pipe’ like room (for lack of a better way of describing it) that is over to your left. You get a good shot at the Walker from there, and can keep a lot of the additional enemies in front of you. Whoever isn’t there should be covering the rear for enemies that spawn behind you. They can also take some shots at the Wolf Walker from where you entered the room provided the add situation isn’t too hairy. Make sure to split up but stay close. Sounds like an oxymoron but you want to be close enough to help each other out but not bunched together either; so that way you can avoid being taking out by a deadly cannon shot from the Wolf Walker.

Although it stinks to be a confined area with a Walker in it, there’s also a lot of structures blocking the Walker’s attacks as well. Just play it safe, clear the adds and slowly take it down. After it’s destroyed, you can move onto the final phase of the newest Destiny House of Wolves strike. Facing down The Shadow Thief himself.

Phase 3: Defeat Taniks

After defeating the Wolf Walker, there isn’t too much else left to The Shadow Thief strike. As you work your way to the boss room, you’ll run across some Fallen and Taniks one more time in a series of hallways. Once again, deal damage to Taniks and send him running. Use the hallway corners to your advantage if you’re on Nightfall and lead them into trap and AoE grenades, keeping everything in front of you at all times.

It won’t be long before you’re in The Shadow Thief’s final room. Although the room is quite big, if you’re on Nightfall you probably won’t be using much of it. You’ll want to stay close to where you walked in. To your left is a small room that will provide you with good cover. Similar to the Walker fight you’ll want to have one or two guardians shooting Taniks from far end of that room (if you’re coming from the entrance), while another Guardian covers the rear, helping each other out when needed. Unlike the Archon Priest, Taniks will rarely (if ever) get uncomfortably close as long as you stay in that room to the left of the entrance.

Taniks will sometimes walk out of sight, but don’t chase him. Be patient and let him come to you. Clearing out some adds in the meantime.

As mentioned earlier, the damage you dealt to Taniks remains and his HP isn’t particularly high even on Nightfall. If you have heavy ammo synthesis and a strong weapon such as Gjallarhorn, you can finish him off quite quickly. Just make sure someone is ready to revive in case you get too aggressive.

This room is to the left of where you walk in. Use it to safely attack Tanik.

Whether you want to play it safe or burn him down, use that room to your advantage and wear The Shadow Thief down. Taniks doesn’t really have any tricks up his sleeve or additional phases. Keep the pressure on and you’ll eventually be able to claim victory!

Even on Nightfall, The Shadow Thief isn’t particularly changing compared to some other strikes and is definitely on the easier end of Destiny strikes, which will come as a relief to many Guardians just starting on House of Wolves. Even on level 32  on Nightfall, our day 1 crew had little trouble taking Taniks out. Once you hit 34 it will get that much easier.

That just about does it for The Shadow Thief! Have your own strategies or tips for this new Destiny House of Wolves strike? Share them down below in the comments!